Home at last

June Casagrande

Four haggard travelers at Ohio’s Akron-Canton airport weren’t

surprised to hear they were out of luck. On an all-night drive they’d

been turned away at airports and car-rental companies throughout the

east.

“You look tired,” the ticket clerk told the four men, whose faces must

have reflected the horror of recent days. “Have you been here all night?”

“No,” said Newport Beach resident Rob Stewart. “We’ve been driving all

night from New York.”

Those last two words changed everything. Minutes later, Delta ticket

clerk Robert Humes was running across the terminal to catch up with the

four shellshocked travelers and tell them he had found a way to help them

get home.

Stewart, Lyle Davis and Scott Ramser arrived at their Newport Beach

homes at around 3 a.m. Friday after surviving the most harrowing

experience of their lives: watching the World Trade Center fall to ruin.

The group was probably among the first to get back to the West Coast,

Ramser said.

Ramser and Stewart had been stranded in the horror-razed city until,

along with Davis, they found a community in each other and a way home.

Davis had a rental car. With Wes Morrissey of Laguna Beach, the men

started a cross-country drive early Thursday morning.

Using their cellular phones, they called airports and airlines in

their path in hopes of getting a flight home. As those hopes faded, they

decided to at least try to get a larger rental car. So they stopped in

Akron to trade in their Nissan Altima for a Crown Victoria and, on a

longshot, ask whether there was any hope of catching a flight.

The airport was almost deserted and Humes, who works at the Delta

ticket counter, reported there were no flights scheduled from Akron to

Southern California.

“We were all the way across the airport when Robert came running to

tell us he may have found a way for us to get home,” Stewart said.

Humes and several colleagues helped the Newport Beach men get a ComAir

shuttle to Cincinnati, where they caught a plane to San Diego.

“They were wonderful, they wanted so much to do anything to help the

New York situation,” Stewart said. “They helped us with our bags and our

rental car.”

Then Humes’ team called Cincinnati to tell them the men were on their

way. When they got to that airport, the Southern Californians were

greeted by airport officials and escorted to their gate.

“The patriotism in middle America was incredible,” Stewart said,

recalling how people at the airport were hugging them and wishing them

well.

When their plane landed in San Diego, Morrissey’s wife Betty was

waiting to drive the men to Orange County.

“We are now four men who are joined permanently at the hip after

living through that, then having eight hours talking about it together,”

Davis said. “It’s good to be home.”

Ramser said that since getting home he’s seen number of friends as

well as his family -- though all four also have finally seen just how

devastating the terrorist attacks were.

“It feels a lot better to be home than to be stuck in a hotel room,”

Ramser said.